The lack of good job opportunities in the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza) remains a central challenge to achieving inclusive growth, peace, and stability in the region.
... See More + The unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories (PT) has remained stubbornly high since 2003, reaching 26 percent in 2015 and disproportionally affecting youth (41 percent) and women (39 percent). Meanwhile, there are stark differences in rates between the West Bank (26 percent) and Gaza (41 percent), and job informality has been persistently high, reaching 61 percent of the workforce in 2015. Limited job creation stems from low levels of private sector investment and its concentration in low-productivity sectors with weak potential for growth and job creation. This situation arises mainly from the ongoing conflict between the Palestinian territories and Israel. Volatile economic growth has not brought about employment growth, and the situation is not likely to improve in the medium term without meaningful changes in Israeli restrictions on trade, movement, and access. As noted, private sector investment remains low and far from sufficient to fuel adequate rates of economic growth, job creation, and reductions in unemployment. In addition, employment in productive tradable sectors such as manufacturing has shrunk, while it has expanded in less productive nontradable services, dominated by small informal firms with low potential for growth and job creation. Although the main underlying constraints are the Israeli restrictions on trade, movement, and access, internal constraints also play a role. These constraints include a poor business climate characterized by a lack of competition; costly and nonstreamlined processes for land surveying, dispute resolution, and registration; limited access to finance for small and medium enterprises; and an education and skills training system that does not equip graduates with the skills needed by businesses—that is, there is a skills mismatch.
See Less -

This Country Gender Action Plan (C-GAP II) for Palestinian territories (FY 18-19) is the second in the West Bank and Gaza (WB&G) Country Management Unit's (CMU) series of country-level gender strategies to provide in depth analysis, a framework for action, and key performance measures by which it can monitor outcomes of the plan and assess success in moving toward gender equality.
... See More + Specifically, the C-GAP II is a tool that is designed to inform the next Assistance Strategy for WB&G (FY18-19) and introduce new entry points that cut across programs and sectors, while building on existing local successes and experiences on gender.
See Less -

Dual practice, health professionals working simultaneously in the public and private sectors, is perceived to negatively impact quality of health care.
... See More + While a range of policy options exists to regulate dual practice, little is known about the impact of different options on quality of care. Successful policy is dependent on a country‟s health care system, health labor market, monitoring of private sector activity, and enforceability of regulations. This paper provides evidence on the potential impact of banning dual practice in Palestine. We apply theoretical evidence and international experience, together with context-specific primary and secondary data, to assess the policy‟s enforceability, implications, and sustainability in the Palestinian context. In this setting, while the risk of losing health workers to the private sector is low, banning dual practice will most likely lead to the “brain drain” of rare specialists from the public sector. Moreover, while there is some evidence that dual practice is negatively impacting quality of care, poor quality in public facilities associated with shortages in supplies and equipment, poor organizational and management practices, low motivation, and absence of monitoring and accountability systems are unlikely to change by banning dual practice. Finally, the ban, as conceptualized, is fiscally unsustainable in a strained health budget and may be challenging to enforce due to a weak monitoring system. Overall, it was found that an outright ban on dualpractice would not reduce the financial burden on patients and enhance their access to quality services in the public sector.
See Less -